


All These Lights

by abbyli



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, The Women's March
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 10:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9435686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbyli/pseuds/abbyli
Summary: To avoid recaps of the inauguration, Darcy drags Bucky out for a day on the town. They end up in the Women’s March.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to all the nasty women, people of color, the veterans, LGBTQA, and everyone else. Love you all.

Polyvore: [ [darcy](https://www.polyvore.com/darcy_all_these_lights/set?id=215416226) ] [ [jane](http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=215420609) ]

.  
.

Darcy’s just coming out of the kitchen, a spoonful of yogurt in her mouth, when the remote goes flying right past her left ear. “Jeez, Buck, what’d the remote do to you?”  
  
Bucky looks momentarily sheepish before flopping down on the couch. “I flipped on the television to watch a movie but they’re covering the inauguration on every channel.”   
  
“That’s Tony’s fault,” Darcy says, taking another bite yogurt. “He’s got all these televisions set to news channel first so he can catch any mention of Iron Man.”   
  
Bucky scowls. “Your brother’s a –“   
  
“Prat, I know,” Darcy chuckles, sitting down onto the sofa beside her husband. “But he means well.”   
  
“Hmph.”   
  
Darcy rolls her eyes, finishing off the rest of her yogurt before setting the empty canister on the coffee table. She lightly taps Bucky on the knee. “Get your coat. We are spending the day on the town.”   
  
“A day on the town?” Bucky repeats, staring at her as she pads over to the closet. Her boots lay discarded in front of the door. “What do you mean?”   
  
Darcy yanks her boots on over her denim clad legs, grabbing her knit cap and jacket before tossing him his own coat. “Steve and Jane are down at the little coffee shop having a date to avoid the inauguration crap as well. How about we crash them and drag them off to see a movie?”  
  
“That actually sounds pretty good, doll.” Bucky pulls on his jacket and easily catches the gloves that Darcy tosses him, sliding them on over his flesh and metal digits. He extends his arm and Darcy takes it once she fixes her cap on over her dark tresses.   
  
Once they are out in the chilly mid winter air, Bucky begins to breathe more easily. “Feels good,” he whispers to her, his arm snaking around her shoulders and holding her tight.   
  
“It better,” Darcy murmurs, pressing a quick kiss to his jaw.   
  
-;  
  
They do find Jane and Steve at the café. Poor Jane looks like she’s about to cry. Steve is ranting away and it suddenly dawns on Darcy that the television in the corner of the dining room is own. She nods to Bucky and goes to Steve’s left side and he takes the right, lifting the man right out of his chair.   
  
“Wha—Buck! Darcy, what are you two doing?”   
  
“Saving Jane from a nervous breakdown,” Darcy says. “Come on, we all need some air.”   
  
Jane casts them both a grateful smile, picking up Steve’s coat and leaving a couple of tens on the table before they exit the café. Once they are outside, she passes the coat back to him, returning the exhausted smile he gives her. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay, punk. I was doing the same thing at home,” Bucky says.   
  
“And he was taking his emotions out on a poor little innocent remote control,” Darcy chuckles. “Come on, let’s walk.”  
  
“Walk where?”   
  
“Anywhere,” Darcy says. “We’re us, remember?”   
  
Jane slides easily into Steve’s arms, her own wrapping around his waist as they begin to walk. There is no destination in mind for any of them. Just walking and living and breathing and loving.   
  
Suddenly, the ease and content is broken by distant shouting. As they round a corner, they see that the streets are clogged with people. Women, men, children of all sorts.   
  
“Is this…oh my god, it’s the Women’s March!” Darcy says. “I forgot all about that! We’ve been avoiding the news so much that it just slipped my mind!”   
  
Bucky’s grip on Darcy’s gloved hand tightens once the crowd reaches them so they don’t get separated. Darcy looks at him. “Do you want to go home?”  
  
Bucky shakes his head. “Hell no.” She gets a similar reaction out of Steve and Jane.   
  
“Let’s go.”   
  
So they walk. Glancing at her phone, Darcy sees that the march had been going on for at least three hours, having started at seven that morning when the people began to gather. She looks around, still clinging to Bucky like a vice, amazed what the turnout.   
  
There’s still hope. There will always be hope.   
  
“Let’s split up. I want to learn,” Darcy says. “If I lose you, meet you at home later?”   
  
Bucky nods. “All right. Be careful.”   
  
“I will.” They share a quick kiss, Jane doing the same with Steve before the two of them make off one way while Steve and Bucky break off the other.   
  
To her great surprise, she runs smack into Sam and Rhodey. “Holy crap!”   
  
Rhodey grins fondly at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Hey there, lil bit.”   
  
“I didn’t know you two were coming to this,” Jane says.  
  
Sam pulls out his phone, thumbing at the screen before holding it under Jane’s nose. She sees a beautiful black woman looking back at her with the greatest smile. “Her name is Sarah. And I’m doing this for her because she can’t.”   
  
Jane understands the meaning behind Sam’s words. She gives his hand a reassuring squeeze before turning to Rhodey. His smile is sad but there is a flicker of something behind it that Darcy can’t quite place.   
  
“Four tours of duty before I met your brother,” he says to her. “Four, Darce. If I hadn’t met your brother, I wouldn’t be where I am now and there are many of other veterans that are not as lucky as me. So I’m here for all the men and women that served their country and are now getting a big fat ‘screw you’ from our new president and his people.”  
  
Darcy slides her arm into Rhodey’s. He presses a kiss to her temple and they walk.   
  
-;  
  
Steve nearly knocks into a young women pushing a stroller. Bucky’s hand snapping out and closing around his wrist stops him from careening to the ground in a pile of arms and legs. “Ma’am, I am so sorry.”   
  
The woman is young, probably around Jane’s age. She has chestnut hair tied back in a bun with a white scarf tied around her throat. Her baby, a little girl, looks remarkably like her at such a young age. “That’s all right. It’s crowded here.”   
  
He leans down to pick up the bottle he had caused her to drop, passing it to the baby who takes it happily. “She’s gorgeous.”   
  
The woman smiles. “Thanks.”   
  
“I’m Steve, and this is my friend Bucky. We kind of forgot this was going on today. Bucky’s wife and my girlfriend are around here somewhere.”   
  
“Avoiding the news?” The woman asks, giving Bucky a smile. “Understandable. I’m Rebecca.”   
  
Bucky’s eyes widen slightly. “I had a sister named Rebecca,” he muses quietly, not intending for her to hear.  
  
“Is she here?”   
  
Bucky shakes his head. “No. Uh…she died of cancer a couple of years ago.” There is truth in that statement. Rebecca Barnes had passed away at the age of 87 from cancer. He had gotten to see her before she had went and she knew him. Oh god she had known him.   
  
“Are you here for her?” Rebecca asks sympathetically.   
  
“Something like that.”   
  
“Well, you gentlemen are welcome to walk with me for the time being until you meet up with your ladies.”   
  
As they walk together, Rebecca regales them with her own story. Due to the upcoming repeal of the Affordable Care Act, if she hadn’t been able to have the insurance, the surgery she needed for her daughter Charlotte wouldn’t have happened. “I’m here for my girl. And for my dad, who died of a heart attack last year. Thank god he got to meet his grandchild,” she says. “He was a vet. Served in Vietnam. His dad served in the Second World War. His dad was part of this group, the Howling Commandos? Have you ever heard of them?”   
  
Bucky nearly trips at the mention, Steve steadying him this time. “Yeah, we have.”   
  
“His name was Gabe Jones. That’s my last name too, I never married.”   
  
“Was he, uh…” Steve licks his lips, fighting for the right words. “Was he happy?”   
  
“Who? My grandfather?” Rebecca asks. Steve nods. “He had some issues with memories. He lost two of his close friends in the war. But yeah, I think he was pretty happy for the rest of his life. He lived to his seventies. Had my dad, and my two aunts. I was about five when he died so I didn’t know him too well but I like to think he would have liked me.”   
  
“Rebecca?” Bucky’s voice is gentle, gentler than Steve has heard it in years. “He would have adored you.”   
  
-;  
  
They meet again around three when they reach Times Square. Darcy claws through the crowd, gripping Jane’s hand like a vice to get to them, nearly throwing herself into Bucky’s arms before reaching for Steve as well. “Wow,” she gasps. “Just…wow.”   
  
“I know,” Bucky murmurs.   
  
Hot chocolate and coffee is being passed around in thermos and cups. Darcy passes hers on to a young man, barely out of teenage years, that looks ready to drop, giving him a reassuring hug before turning back to her husband. They hold hands as people head to the front of the crowd, giving speeches, making promises of not going away and never giving up.   
  
Darcy and Jane are introduced to Rebecca and her adorable daughter. They point out Sam and Rhodey in the crowd. More stories of growth, of change, and of hope ring through the people.   
  
A woman talks about her breast cancer being found early because of scans at Planned Parenthood. A man talks about his son’s bipolar disorder being able to be treated because of the insurance coverage that he was able to get that he is sure is going to lose within the next couple of weeks.   
  
“We have so much on the line here,” another woman calls out. “We are settling right back into the 1960’s. We are a developed nation and there is no reason why we should be like this now. The power belongs to the people and we want to be able to practice whatever religion we want, to hold our children, to have the rights to our own bodies, and be able to live without wondering where our next meal is coming from!”   
  
An agreeing rumble from the people is her answer.   
  
“And what about the military veterans?!” A man calls back. “They stand to lose so much!”   
  
“Exactly!” Darcy startles, the roar coming from Steve. She lets out a laugh, reaching over to grab his arm and give it a quick squeeze. He smiles at her before taking the hand of an elderly gentleman standing beside him. “What war?” he asks, quiet enough that only they can hear.   
  
“Korea,” the gentleman says. “I’m here for my wife though. Not for me.”   
  
And that’s how it is. The march carried on for several more hours, leaking on into the night. People sang, they danced, they rejoiced for the love that was sure needed for the next four years.   
  
-;  
  
Darcy and Bucky began to head back to their apartment as night fell. The lights from people’s candles lit up the darkened sky, shining bright as hope carried on. Always.   
  
“Did you know about that?” Bucky asks her as they shed their coats. “Really?”   
  
Darcy shakes her head. “No I didn’t. I swear.”   
  
Bucky smirks, kissing her forehead before heading to the kitchen to prepare tea. “Earl grey?”   
  
“As usual.”   
  
She flops down on the couch, not bothering to turn on the lights. The light from the kitchen hangs dim before going out, Bucky reappearing with their drinks and passing off one warm mug to her. They lay there on the sofa in silence, taking drafts from their drinks. Darcy’s eyelids hang heavy and she’s on the brink of sleep.  
  
“The world has gone through this before,” she says softly. “And we have always survived.”   
  
“I saw on my phone that a [senator in Indiana is trying to pass a bill to make it okay for police to kill protesters](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/18/indiana-protest-bill-police-power),” Bucky responds.  
  
Darcy swallows at the rising lump in her throat. “Then we’ll fight.”   
  
“We’ll fight,” he agrees. “I love you, Darcy.”   
  
“I love you too, James.”  
  
.

**.**

**Author's Note:**

> There are dark days ahead. But the people are speaking up and will not give up. I did not get to go to the March. I wish I could have. But I will be here doing what I can to fight this fight. Hold your loved ones close. Remember every single day that there is still HOPE. And never, ever give up. 
> 
> I love you all so much.


End file.
